I pulled onto Highway 72 from the street beside
Lowes.I was going west.Just before I got to Walmart, a lady talking
on her cell phone whipped over in the front of me, hit her brakes, and almost
immediately turned right into the Walmart parking lot—no signal.I was lucky I didn’t cream her or get creamed
by the car right on my rear bumper.It
made me so mad!I followed her into the Walmart parking
lot.When she finally parked I pulled
right up behind her.I told her, “You
need to learn how to drive that @#$% car and get off the @$#% cellphone.”

You look at
me with your mouth dropped open.“You
said what?”

“I should
have told her a lot more than that.She deserved everything she got and more.”

“You ought
to be ashamed,” you finally say.

“Why, I hear
words like that at the office every day.Furthermore, I hear lots more Christian use similar four letter words
than you might think.Ashamed, why
should I be ashamed?”

Fortunately,
this is not a true story, although it could well have been.Think with me for just a minute.

After Adam and Eve had eaten from the forbidden
fruit in Genesis 3, God spoke to them—

Genesis 3:9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and
said to him, "Where are you?"10
So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and
I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."11 And He said, "Who told you that you
were naked?

I have no doubt they hid partly because of fear, not
knowing how God was going to react to their disobedience.However, just as much, I believe they were
ashamed.God had placed them in this
beautiful garden, a paradise on earth, and they wouldn’t honor Him but they listened
to a liar and believed his deception.They truly should be ashamed!

It doesn’t have to be sin with our tongue or eating
forbidden fruit.ANY sin should, yea
even MUST bring us to shame before our God.

Ezra 9:5 At the evening
sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I
fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God.6 And I said: "O my God, I am too
ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities
have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens.

Ezra was “too ashamed and humiliated” to even look
toward God because of the sins of God’s own chosen people.Sin, any sin, brings shame and is a reproach
to any people.

Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, But
sin is a reproach to any people.

But what if I don’t feel shame for sin?What if I’d rather boast and brag about my
conquest or my activities?After all,
everyone else is doing the same thing?They all talk about what they did last night, who they were with, and
how “we had a great time.”

The first statement to address is “everyone else is
doing the same thing.”WRONG, no they
are not.All those in your circle
may be, but I strongly suggest you are in the wrong circle.If you don’t think so, then I’d suggest you
have been blinded by a gradual association with those who are failing to
practice righteousness because they have lost the sting of sin (1 Timothy 4:2).

Now for the first two questions—I don’t feel shame
and I want to boast or brag about my activities.First, evaluate the activities.Are they righteous?Really??Would you mind making a video and sending it home to mom?(Jesus already has His ‘video.’)

I have lived seventy years on God’s earth, yep, just
a tired old man.I wrote everything
above this last night, then this morning I saw a picture of a young lady
sitting with a foot propped up on the sofa with lots of bare leg showing
(obviously wearing shorts).I certainly
won’t say such wouldn’t be done “in my day,” but neither would it have been
plastered all over social media.Where is
the shame for immodesty?It was very
apparent there was none.

Have you and I become too proud to be ashamed?Jeremiah 8:12 Were they ashamed when they had
committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed, Nor
did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; In the time of their punishment They shall be cast
down," says the LORD.

There is another choice.Psalms 31:1 In You, O LORD, I put my trust;
Let me never be ashamed; Deliver me in Your righteousness.We could stop the sinning and the boasting
and turn to the Lord then we would have no need for shame.

Proverbs 28:13 He who covers his sins will not
prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will
have mercy.

Oh, that we would be pierced with our sins as was
David.When he kept silent (did not
confess his sins) he hurt and groaned like a tired old man.But, when he confessed his sins to God he
found forgiveness.How long since you
have groaned (hurt inside and wept) because of sin?

Psalms 32:3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old
Through my groaning all the day long.

4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My
vitality was turned into the drought of summer.

5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And
my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions
to the LORD," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.